


Day 6. Drooling | Cross That Line

by steadycoffeeflow (Salimity)



Series: Inktober 2018 [6]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demon Hunters, Interrogation, Josh is the warloc in training, Markus as a half-demon, Mild Blood, North gets punchy, North is the hunter, Simon is the man of letters, This fic is basically Markus is tied to a chair while North works him over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 08:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16740616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salimity/pseuds/steadycoffeeflow
Summary: Josh made a noise and North blinked, breaking the contact. He directed her to the blood, and she did more than give it a cursory evaluation. Where she then went rigid, all the tension and stress flooding back into her body, a tidal force slamming into her gut.The color was all wrong.When you cut a demon, the spray was cobalt. Deep. Rich. Unmistakably non-human.But his blood was red. A deep, bruised red that was off-color still, but undeniably not blue.





	Day 6. Drooling | Cross That Line

North’s fist caught the demon square in the stomach, unable to withdraw or flinch in on himself due to the restraints pinning his arms and legs to the chair. Spittle mixed with his blood flew out on impact, flecking onto the concrete floor of the safe house interrogation room. North regarded it with impassive disdain, just seeing wet patches from something useless and unworthy of walking amongst them. Ah well, they had a job to do.

To her left, Josh shifted away. “What? Squeamish? Why don’t you just get back to your journals, Josh. Go help Simon.” North leaned over the chair, picked up the creature’s head as his neck rolled loosely after the blow. He was mumbling something, but North trusted Simon’s wards not to fail her. Though, considering how they’d gotten into this current predicament, maybe she ought to be more careful.

“You should take it easy. So far, he’s an anomaly of his kind,” Josh replied.

“Oh what? One of them has a death wish and all of a sudden we can’t smite the bastards? Or is this because you think he’ll make for an excellent topic discussion for your next book club, hm?” North grabbed the demon’s mouth and pinched his cheeks in, moving his head toward Josh.

“North,” Josh warned, voice low.

“Whatever.” She backed off, wrenching the demon’s head away while she turned to consider the setup of tools at her disposal.

The demon spat, then lifted his eyes. “I don’t have a death wish. I just need you to listen to me.”

Josh and North grew still, staring at him. It’d been the most he’d said since showing up on their front door, asking for them by name: Jericho. Salvation.

North hadn’t provided it, her divine grace taking the form of immediately knocking him out and dragging his body down to their holding circles where the demon now sat, restrained and helpless.

So while Simon made sure they weren’t compromised completely, North was given free reign to work the bastard over to find out just how and why a demon had managed to get so close to them, without any of their alarms or traps triggering.

And Josh? Far as North was concerned he was there to take notes on what real action looked like.

North’s finger tapped on the handle of a scalpel while she mused over what the demon was saying. They just needed to listen to him, huh? Well, there would be a lot to listen to - it was discerning the truth from the pain-spilt lies that mattered. North didn’t consider herself a sadist. She just seemed...better at it. Better had putting up walls while she worked and having enough sense not to breach them. Only let those walls come down later, at night or whenever she stole sleep for herself, when she had privacy to soothe her shakes away without worrying the others.

Josh always wanted to try reasoning with them, getting caught up in devil-tongue tricks and nearly getting himself cursed every damned time.

And Simon...was Simon. He provided solid support. In truth, North understood she couldn’t do this without either of them. They were a team, through and through.

Which was why a demon showing up out of the blue had shaken her. Not that she was going to let that show. No, this? This was her time to be strong.

“What makes you think you have anything worthwhile to hear?” North asked. She held the tip of the blade under the demon’s jaw. She immediately hated how he tilted his head back, inviting the nip of the blade rather than shying away. “Or that I’d even be willing to hear your lies and half-truths, hm?” She pressed, obliging the obvious masochist with the pain he apparently craved.

The demon’s skin broke and his eyes didn’t even betray the sensation. Just kept them watching North as a thin trail of blood ran down the blade, the handle, before dripping off onto his own leg. If she just applied more pressure, swung her arm away, she’d slash his throat open. The power she held over his life, however, didn’t seem to matter to the demon. Dimly, North thought she was being bewitched by holding his gaze - the oddest thing, heterochromia in a demon - as she felt some of the anger and tension ebb out of her muscles.

Josh made a noise and North blinked, breaking the contact. He directed her to the blood, and she did more than give it a cursory evaluation. Where she then went rigid, all the tension and stress flooding back into her body, a tidal force slamming into her gut.

The color was all wrong.

When you cut a demon, the spray was cobalt. Deep. Rich. Unmistakably non-human.

But his blood was red. A deep, bruised red that was off-color still, but undeniably not blue. At the same time North was realizing something was wrong, Simon leaned in, rapping his knuckles on the metal door. “North, a word? Josh, you better come up too.”

North let the scalpel clatter on the tray as she joined Simon without question, thankful for the immediate distraction. It had to be a trick, something in the amber light of the room or maybe she’d been compromised, spellbound. She could feel the drag and pull of his mismatched eyes on her even as she climbed the stairs and turned her back on him, leaving him in isolation. For good measure, she switched the lights out on him before kicking the metal door shut.

She’d be back down there, in due time, perhaps with more ammo depending on what Simon had to say.

He lead them up into the heart of their home, past the kitchen and command center and into the reading room where he stopped before Josh’s usual post at his desk. “To get to the point, I’ve tested and checked every proximity spell and warding,” Simon began, voice small. It was more cozy in the space of the library, however, with its paper walls and towering book shelves. “There’s a good reason he was able to get so close without tripping any of them.”

A part of North already was aware of what Simon had to say. The answer was in the deep ruby blood, running down the handle toward her fingers. Staining his legs, splattering on the concrete. Somehow, even with Simon’s hushed tones, North felt her blood pressure rising, flooding her chest with resounding beats of panic. “It’s simply because,” Simon continued, “he’s not a demon. Not a human either."

"What the hell does that mean, he's something else entirely?" North asked, bristling. The demon was underfoot, alone. The knowledge of this prickled up her feet, shins, coiled in her guts.

Simon wrung his hands. "I mean...yes. Something we've never seen before." And Simon's voice, so timid and cautious when entering a room, had never been louder or packed more of a punch.

**Author's Note:**

> One of the few Inktober prompts I'd consider working on and adding more content to if I could think of something like a basic plot.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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